London: British researchers are launching a trial to see whether dogs can use their noses to detect whether humans have COVID-19 before they show symptoms.
Britain’s health department said on Saturday that disease control experts are looking into whether dogs that have been trained to sniff out certain cancers and malaria can potentially be used as a non-invasive, early warning measure to identify the coronavirus.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Durham University are collaborating with the charity Medical Detection Dogs. The trial is getting 500,000 pounds (USD 600,000) of British government funding.
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Six dogs, including Labradors and Cocker Spaniels, have started basic training for the trial. In the initial phase, researchers plan to gather odor samples from both people infected with the virus and those who aren’t.
The health department says the dogs will then undergo thorough training using the samples and will only be deployed if backed by strong scientific evidence.
(AP)
